5,500 State Workers Face Unpaid Day Off

5,500 State Workers Face Unpaid Day Off

With no decision on a last-minute legal attempt Thursday to stop a partial government shutdown, more than 5,500 state employees face an unwanted and unpaid day off today.

The shutdown, state officials say, is likely to have little impact on the average person.

Union leaders, however, hope that thousands of the furloughed workers will spend part of the day at the state Department of Transportation headquarters in Wethersfield, where a rally is scheduled at 10 a.m. to protest the shutdown.

The furlough is the first of 15 scheduled before June 30. State budget officials expect to save $86 million as a result of the furloughs and the planned layoffs of about 3,750 state workers.

The Connecticut Employees Union Independent asked Thursday for an injunction prohibiting the furloughs, but Superior Court Judge Norris L. O'Neill had not announced a decision by the evening.

A lawyer for the union Thursday night said he expected today's shutdown to take place.

"We believe this has been done illegally, in violation of state law and of the employees' contract," said Edward T. Lynch, the lawyer representing the union. "It's a classic lockout."

State labor negotiators said Thursday that Gov. Lowell P. Weicker Jr.'s administration has the right to order the shutdown.

"Our position is that the decision to partially close agencies is a management prerogative," said Saranne P. Murray, the governor's chief negotiator. Murray said employees had received proper notification of the furlough.

An assistant attorney general argued Thursday before O'Neill that the contractual labor grievance procedure, not court, is the right forum for the unions' complaint about the shutdown.

Last month, Weicker announced the partial-shutdown program, which will take place one of every 10 workdays for the remainder of the fiscal year, as a way to balance the state budget without an expected $354 million in employee wage and benefit concessions.

That concession agreement, negotiated between the governor and the unions last spring, fell apart after the state began the fiscal year without a budget. The leaders of four unions have agreed to

concessions in the past month, shielding their workers from the furloughs and additional layoffs during the current fiscal year.

At least 16 state departments and agencies will be affected by today's partial shutdown. The state Department of Transportation is furloughing the largest number of state workers, about 2,700, or nearly 70 percent of the department's 3,920 workers.

DOT spokesman William E. Keish said most residents are unlikely to notice a reduction in services.

"The buses will be running, the trains will be running, the airports and rest areas will be open," Keish said. "The only service that will be closed that will affect the public is the ferries."

Two state-operated ferry services on the Connecticut River, one between Glastonbury and Rocky Hill and the other connecting Chester and Hadlyme, will not operate today.

The DOT's 51 maintenance garages will be operating with skeleton crews of only three workers at each garage. The usual complement of workers at the garages is much higher; the Farmington garage, for example, had 27 workers until six were laid off last week in another budget-cutting move.

Some union officials have said the furloughing of maintenance workers will endanger state residents if there is a snowstorm on a shutdown day. But DOT Commissioner Emil H. Frankel said plow crews would be called in to work if there was a snowstorm or other emergency.

Keish said most DOT offices would be open today, although most workers in the design, engineering and planning offices will have the day off. That will be the case at many other affected agencies, too.

Employees were notified of the furlough day last month, and planning for the partial shutdown has gone smoothly, Keish said.

About 1,400 workers from a 5,200-member Department of Mental Retardation staff will have one-day furloughs today. A spokeswoman said furloughs will not affect the department's residential homes or direct services to mentally retarded people in day programs.

Prisons will operate normally despite the furlough of 201 correction workers today, a Department of Correction spokesman said. The furloughs will not threaten safety, he said.

Other agencies that will be affected today include the departments of administrative services, agriculture, consumer protection, education and public works. Agencies that will feel the effect of layoffs include the state budget office, the Commission on the Arts, the Board of Education and Services for the Blind, the Connecticut Alcohol and Drug Abuse Commission, the Ethics Commission, the Freedom of Information Commission, the Historical Commission and the Commission on Fire Prevention and Control.

In a related labor matter, union and state labor officials said the concession package agreed to earlier this week by the leadership of a union of professors would not set a precedent.

The bargaining unit, the American Association of University Professors at the four campuses of Connecticut State University, would be the first to rescind raises that had appeared in their paychecks. Members will vote on ratification this month.

State police union leaders were technically the first to agree to give back income, when they recommended ratification of a package that calls for each trooper to give up $1,900 in meal money. Members will vote Wednesday.